The 2023–24 Illinois Fighting Illini men's basketball team represented the

University of Illinois The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC, U of I, Illinois, or University of Illinois) is a public university, public land-grant university, land-grant research university in the Champaign–Urbana metropolitan area, Illinois, United ...

during the

2023–24 NCAA Division I men's basketball season The 2023–24 NCAA Division I men's basketball season began on November 6, 2023. The regular season ended on March 17, 2024, with the 2024 NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament beginning with the First Four on March 19 and ending with th ...

. The Illini were led by seventh-year head coach

Brad Underwood Bradley Cole Underwood (born December 14, 1963) is the current head coach for the Illinois Fighting Illini men's basketball team. Previously, he served as head coach at Oklahoma State Cowgirls basketball, Oklahoma State, Stephen F. Austin Lumber ...

. The Illini played their home games at the

State Farm Center The State Farm Center is a large dome-shaped 15,544-seat indoor arena located in Champaign, Illinois, owned and operated by the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. The arena hosts games for the Illinois Fighting Illini men's basketball, ...

Champaign, Illinois Champaign ( ) is a city in Champaign County, Illinois, United States. The population was 88,302 at the 2020 census. It is the List of municipalities in Illinois, tenth-most populous municipality in Illinois and the fourth most populous city in ...

as members of the

Big Ten Conference The Big Ten Conference (stylized B1G, formerly the Western Conference and the Big Nine Conference, among others) is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference in the United States. Founded as the Intercollegiate Conference of Fa ...

. They defeated

Wisconsin Wisconsin ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest of the United States. It borders Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake Michigan to the east, Michig ...

to win the

Big Ten Tournament Big Ten Tournament can refer to any Big Ten Conference sport that has a tournament or championship game: * Big Ten Football Championship Game * Big Ten men's basketball tournament * Big Ten women's basketball tournament * Big Ten baseball tournamen ...

. The team was then awarded the #3 seed in the East region of the NCAA Tournament, in which they advanced their first Elite Eight since

2005 2005 was designated as the International Year for Sport and Physical Education and the International Year of Microcredit. The beginning of 2005 also marked the end of the International Decade of the World's Indigenous Peoples, Internationa ...

. There they lost to the eventual champion,

UConn The University of Connecticut (UConn) is a public land-grant research university system with its main campus in Storrs, Connecticut, United States. It was founded in 1881 as the Storrs Agricultural School, named after two benefactors. In 1893, ...

77–52. The Illinois Fighting Illini men's basketball team drew an average home attendance of 14,990 in 18 games in 2023–24.

Previous season

The Illini finished the 2022–23 season 20–13, 11–9 in Big Ten play to finish in a four-way tie for fifth place. As the No. 7 seed in the

Big Ten tournament Big Ten Tournament can refer to any Big Ten Conference sport that has a tournament or championship game: * Big Ten Football Championship Game * Big Ten men's basketball tournament * Big Ten women's basketball tournament * Big Ten baseball tournamen ...

, they lost to

Penn State #Redirect Pennsylvania State University The Pennsylvania State University (Penn State or PSU) is a Public university, public Commonwealth System of Higher Education, state-related Land-grant university, land-grant research university with ca ...

in the second round. They received an at-large bid to the NCAA tournament as the No. 9 seed in the West Region where they lost to

Arkansas Arkansas ( ) is a landlocked state in the West South Central region of the Southern United States. It borders Missouri to the north, Tennessee and Mississippi to the east, Louisiana to the south, Texas to the southwest, and Oklahoma ...

in the First Round.

Offseason

Niccolo Moretti joined the Illini for the second semester of the 2022-2023 academic year and took part in practice and officially joined the team this season. After declaring for the

2023 NBA draft The 2023 NBA draft, the 77th edition of the National Basketball Association's annual NBA draft, draft, was held on June 22, 2023, at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York. The draft consisted of 58 picks instead of the typical 60 for the second ...

, both Terrence Shannon Jr. and Coleman Hawkins withdrew and returned to the Illini. Jeremiah Williams committed to transfer to Illinois on June 1, 2023, but later withdrew that commitment and rejoined the transfer portal later that month on June 23. In August, the Illini took a ten-day trip to

Spain Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring the Punta de Tarifa, southernmost point of continental Europe, it is the largest country in Southern Eur ...

where they played and won three games against Spanish teams. None of the games were televised but the Illini provided a link to stream the second game for free on Vimeo.

Departures

Incoming transfers

Source:

2023 recruiting class

Roster

Note: While listed above as a graduate student for NCAA eligibility purposes, Shannon is a fifth-year senior working towards his bachelor's degree.

Roster movement

*Shannon was suspended prior to the December 29 game against FDU and became eligible to play again January 19. *Moretti suffered a foot injury during the November 19 game against Southern and suited up for the January 14 game against Maryland, but did not play until the following game against Michigan. *Hansberry began sitting out games with back spasms starting with the game against Purdue on January 5 and returned to action against Ohio State on January 30.

Schedule and results

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Rankings

References

External links

*
2023–24 Illinois MBB record book
{{DEFAULTSORT:2023-24 Illinois Fighting Illini men's basketball team

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. It borders on Lake Michigan to its northeast, the Mississippi River to its west, and the Wabash River, Wabash and Ohio River, Ohio rivers to its ...

Illinois Fighting Illini men's basketball seasons

Big Ten men's basketball tournament championship seasons Illinois Fighting Illini Men's Basketball Team Illinois Fighting Illini Men's Basketball Team